The present invention relates to an internet television apparatus (although, not limited to this) wherein an external internet unit or an internal internet circuit is added to a television apparatus, and more particularly to an apparatus which allows a user to specify a selectable item or a so-called hot spot on a home page of the Internet, with a cursor motion key of a remote controller.
Conventionally, in order to access the Internet, it has ordinarily been necessary for a user to use a personal computer and have at least minimum knowledge about computers. Especially, it has been required to use a keyboard for operation, which has been difficult for users who are not familiar with the keyboard. Therefore, internet participants tended to be limited to specialists, and the situation is far from that a lot of people can widely participate in the Internet.
A simple hardware configuration to access the Internet is to use a video game machine. In this case, the operation is performed by a controller attached to the game machine. This controller permits a remote control of the machine but a cable wire has to be used due to the original purpose of the game machine. Since the controller has to be operated by both hands, the operation is troublesome, inconvenient in dragging the cable, and not easy.
Therefore, it is desirable to be able to access the Internet through the use of a television apparatus which widely spreads over every family and to perform an operation by using a remote controller attached to the television apparatus.
A personal computer offers an operation to click on a hot spot by using a pointing device like a mouse, while a wireless remote controller of a television apparatus does not permit such an operation. Therefore, an operation equivalent to the clicking operation on the hot spot is achieved by displaying a cursor on a Web browser screen of the Internet displayed on the television, moving the cursor in a desired direction by an arrow key of the remote controller to superimpose the cursor on a target hot spot, and further, pressing a predetermined button in this state. However, it is quite troublesome and also time-consuming to accurately control the cursor by the key operation, and hence, this is not practical.
Therefore, it is an object of the present invention to provide a method and a device which allows a user to easily specify a hot spot on a browser screen by using a remote controller of a television apparatus or the like.
The present invention provides an internet television apparatus having an internet connecting capability, comprising: means for connecting to a Web server of the Internet; means for storing an HTML document received from the Web server; means for interpreting the HTML document and developing an image on an image memory; a display device for displaying the developed image thereon; a wireless remote controller having an operation key or keys for indicating at least four directions for remotely controlling the internet television apparatus; means for recognizing anchor tags existing in the HTML document to detect mutual positional relationship among hot spots, corresponding to the recognized anchor tags, on the browser screen so as to generate a transfer list which defines the positional relationship; and a control means for determining to which hot spot a focus is to be transferred next from a currently focussed hot spot by referring to the transfer list on the basis of the currently focussed hot spot and a user""s operation to the operation key or keys for indicating at least four directions, and for transferring the focus to the determined hot spot.
The present invention provides, from another point of view, an external device to be connected to the television apparatus for providing the same with an internet connecting capability, comprising: means for connecting to a Web server of the Internet; means for storing an HTML document received from the Web server; means for interpreting the HTML document and developing an image on an image memory; means for transmitting the developed image to the television apparatus; a wireless remote controller which has an operation key or keys for indicating at least four directions for remotely controlling the external device; means for recognizing anchor tags existing in the HTML document to detect mutual positional relationship among hot spots, corresponding to the recognized anchor tags, on the browser screen so as to generate a transfer list which defines the positional relationship; and a control means for determining to which hot spot a focus is to be transferred next from a currently focussed hot spot by referring to the transfer list on the basis of the currently focussed hot spot and a user""s operation to the operation key or keys for indicating at least four directions, and for transferring the focus to the determined hot spot.
The internet television apparatus or the external device may be provided with means for receiving the HTML documents via a telephone line. Alternatively, it may be provided with means for receiving the HTML documents from a data broadcasting.
The focusing can be performed by displaying a cursor placed on a hot spot to be focussed on or displaying with an emphasis the hot spot to be focussed on.
Preferably, the remote controller for the external device is used in common with the television apparatus. The present invention, from yet another point of view, provides a method of transferring, by key operation, a focus among a plurality of hot spots on a browser screen displaying an HTML document on a device including a display for displaying the HTML document, comprising the steps of: receiving an HTML document; recognizing anchor tags existing in the HTML document received; detecting the mutual positional relationship among hot spots, corresponding to the recognized anchor tags, on a browser screen so as to generate a transfer list which defines the positional relationship; determining to which hot spot a focus is to be transferred next from a currently focussed hot spot by referring to the transfer list on the basis of the currently focussed hot spot and a user""s operation to the operation key or keys for indicating at least four directions, and for transferring the focus to the determined hot spot.
The present invention also includes in its scope a storage medium in which a computer program for achieving such a method is stored. Such storage media include a semiconductor ROM, a CD-ROM, a floppy disk, a hard disk, etc.
According to the present invention, it is possible to let the focus on a hot spot directly jump among hot spots according to a transfer pattern based on an operation of the remote controller, so that any one of the hot spots on a home page may be selected to receive and display desired information. Therefore, anybody who can operate a television apparatus can easily connect to the Internet and browse home pages.